Battle Bowling for iPad (updated 6/12 – 20 more promo codes inside)

6/12/2012 Update: 20 more codes added on page 2 to celebrate the release of version 1.2, which includes changes suggested in this thread!

5/4/2012 Update: 10 more codes added at bottom of page to celebrate the release of version 1.1.

Hello all,

My first iOS game is available on the app store, and since I've just submitted my first update for review I have a bunch of my original promo codes left over, so I figured I'd share them here.

The game is Battle Bowling for iPad. It's a two-player head-to-head bowling game that has a one-player practice mode (which I've beefed up in the 1.1 since it seems to be the primary way most people play).

It's my return to programming after a 25 year hiatus (long live the TRS-80 Color Computer) and I'm trying to turn this into a profitable endeavor, so please take the time to rate and review the game if you like it to help me out. Thanks so much!

Tony

P.S. Mods, if this type of a post is unwelcome here, I apologize. Though a long-time Ars fan, I haven't been able to spend much time here lately so the etiquette may be lost on me.

I'm curious to see how everyone is making out with the game... some players find the controls tricky at first, but tend to get the "feel" for it soon enough. I wonder if "soon enough" is really soon enough for most people though.

By the way, be sure to check for the update soon (it's waiting for approval) that adds Game Center leader boards and a few other things to the 1P mode.

And if anyone knows if other Ars users are indie developers, please let me know so I can pick their brains on how to get the word out. It's a bit frustrating that there are 70 million iPads yet it's very tough to generate much in the way of sales (I'm just starting out but that's what I've heard from other indies).

On my iPad 2 when I first ran the game the screen was black and music was playing. I had to force quit the app, and then when I restarted the app it ran fine. Graphics look pretty good. I only had a chance to spend 15 minutes or so on it. I didn't find anything too difficult about the controls. However, spinning the ball seems to be extreme, I'm seeing rather large u-turns with just a little turn of the finger. Also, when rolling the ball it seems to wobble down the lane in an unpredictable manner, very hard to roll the ball straight. This may be something that with practice will improve for me.

I also had some trouble with getting the ball to go straight, or even straight-ish. Sometimes also the ball would freeze right after I remove my finger, and then starts rolling on it's own after a second.

Difficulty controlling the ball is usually the result of either not pulling the ball towards you before a swipe, or swiping too quickly (this is when the ball is stopped).

The first problem is a result of the notification center affecting how the ball must be placed for the second player (if placed to close to the edge the player will accidentally enable the notification center, which apparently can't be turned off).

Difficulty controlling the ball is usually the result of either not pulling the ball towards you before a swipe, or swiping too quickly (this is when the ball is stopped).

The first problem is a result of the notification center affecting how the ball must be placed for the second player (if placed to close to the edge the player will accidentally enable the notification center, which apparently can't be turned off).

Definitely some awkwardness with it, like the tolerance for movement on the release needs to be opened up or something. I feel like I can do the same swipe (or similar enough) but the result is a bit unpredictable.

As for notification center, can you orient the screen (to the system) as landscape? That way the only way to bring notification center up would be a swipe from the side (relative to the game orientation).

Difficulty controlling the ball is usually the result of either not pulling the ball towards you before a swipe, or swiping too quickly (this is when the ball is stopped).

The first problem is a result of the notification center affecting how the ball must be placed for the second player (if placed to close to the edge the player will accidentally enable the notification center, which apparently can't be turned off).

Definitely some awkwardness with it, like the tolerance for movement on the release needs to be opened up or something. I feel like I can do the same swipe (or similar enough) but the result is a bit unpredictable.

As for notification center, can you orient the screen (to the system) as landscape? That way the only way to bring notification center up would be a swipe from the side (relative to the game orientation).

Great idea on the notification center. It's quite a bit of work but it would allow me to move the ball "back" towards the edge, which would definitely help player get the throw down quickly. And I could easily add a toggle on the spin to allow players to throw the ball straight - I'll try that to see if it makes it too easy to repeat strikes (spin should be an advantage for the strong player).

Oh forgot to mention one more thing, the foul seemed inconsistent, like I was able to release over the line occasionally without getting called for it.

One way to make the game harder would be to scale things down like smaller ball and pins, which would let you create longer lanes. Not sure how hard it'd be to implement at this point though, maybe use the idea for extra lanes down the line or something.

Most of the graphics are quite good, but the 2 key graphics, the bowling ball and the pins need some work. You should have animated pins flying off the screen when hit, rather than just the static pin top down view. The bowling ball should have detail and look like its rolling / spinning. (up charge for bowling ball designs?)

Could do a whole in game+real currency mechanic for different ball designs, like count pins knocked down towards some in game currency and let users buy otherwise. And yeah the (lack of) pin animation could use work, but having no clue about your code and not being a programmer myself, I'll just assume that it might be a difficult change to implement at this point.

Thanks for the critiques, everyone. I plan on incorporating a few soon.

For those who downloaded the app, version 1.1 is now available, with enhancements to the one-player mode, most notably a Game Center leader board, automatic tweeting of high scores (once toggled ON), and a bonus for "turkeys" (3 consecutive strikes) delivered by a friendly new turkey character.

To celebrate the release of Battle Bowling 1.1, here are 10 more promo codes for those who missed out the first two times...

Now I'm off to work on the 1.2 version. I am definitely going to add pin and ball animations and a toggle for the SPIN to allow players to easily roll the ball straight (default will be for the spin to be off).